Jund al-Sarawati

The Jund al-Sarawati are a Salafi jihadist umbrella organization that were founded in 2012 by Akbar Junus al-Yemeni. The Jund al-Sarawati are a part of al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia, and they are active in southern Yemen, with their base at the Sarawat Steppe.

History
The Jund al-Sarawati organization was founded in 2012 by Akbar Junus al-Yemeni, a young Yemeni Sunni Muslim who created a group of Salafist militiamen who sought to overthrow the Yemeni government and instate sharia law over southern Yemen. Based in the Sarawat Steppe, they allied with al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia and fought against the Yemeni central government of Sana'a and the Houthis. In 2014, their leader and 529 of their members were killed in an attack by United States troops in Operation Oxide.